About / Biographies

Deborah Potter

Contributing Correspondent

Deborah Potter is a veteran reporter, anchor, and journalism trainer who spent 16 years as a correspondent for CBS News and CNN. She is executive director of NewsLab, a nonprofit journalism resource center in Washington, D.C., which she founded in 1998.

At CBS News, Potter served as White House, State Department, and Congressional correspondent. She was a frequent contributor to the prime time CBS News program 48 HOURS and hosted the interview program, NIGHTWATCH. She joined CNN in 1991, where she anchored news programs and covered national politics and environmental issues.

In the mid ’90s, Potter hosted the PBS series IN THE PRIME, looking at issues facing Americans at mid-life. She has been a contributing correspondent to RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY since 2004.

Potter is a featured columnist for American Journalism Review, writing about broadcast issues. She is also the co-author of Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World, published by CQ Press (2008), two handbooks for news managers published by the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, and an international guide to independent journalism.

Potter has taught journalism as a faculty member at the Poynter Institute and American University, and as a visiting professional at dozens of other universities. She leads training sessions for working journalists at national and regional conferences and in newsrooms in the U.S. and around the world.

Before joining CBS News in 1978, Potter worked as a news anchor for KYW Newsradio in Philadelphia; as a reporter for the VOICE OF AMERICA in Washington; and as a news producer for WMAL-TV in Washington. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree from American University.